S&M Brands has received substantial equivalent orders from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its redesigned Riverside cigarette brand. S&M Brands is one of the few companies, behind Lorillard, that has navigated the Tobacco Control Act to obtain approval of a new cigarette tobacco product, and the first to obtain approval of a full line of king and 100s in regular and menthol.
“We are treating this as a milestone in the industry, for our company and the industry as a whole,” says Steven Bailey, president, S&M Brands.
“Introducing a new tobacco product under FDA regulation is an arduous, technical and scientific process that takes substantial time and resources. We felt, however, that improving our Riverside product was paramount for our adult customers, so our excellent in-house team, together with our outside consultants, worked tirelessly with the FDA to navigate the substantial equivalent process.
“We believe this achievement demonstrates that our company is staffed up for regulatory compliance to be around for our distributor and retail partners and customers for the long haul.”
The redesigned Riverside brand will be distributed to retailers and available to consumers by Oct. 15, 2014.